The past week of workouts included my last few workouts of 2019 and my first few workouts of 2020. It was a good way to end and start a year and it was exactly what I wanted to do. Because I wanted to keep my regular workout schedule as much as possible but I also wanted to work out on New Year’s Eve, I ended up having a 5 workout week. But somehow that seemed really fitting for me.
Monday’s workout had a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it had a lot of switching around. It was a good workout to start off a week with 3 workouts in a row and a total of 5 workouts (which I rarely do). The first part of class switched between the floor and the rower and the second part of class had one longer cardio block and one longer floor block.
For the first part of class, everything was 3 minutes long. On the rower, we had 2 different 3-minute rows for distance. The goal was to be able to go further on the second row than we did on the first, but I didn’t realize we were going to have 2 rounds of it and I probably went a little too hard on the first attempt. I still did better than I expected with both rows, but I wish I had been able to do better on the second row. And on the floor, the first time we were there we had plank rotations and bicycle crunches. And the second time we had bench hop overs and seated knee tucks.
For the long floor block, we had squats to calf raises, lateral lunges, plank low rows, plank side toe taps, and sit-ups to squats. It was a long floor block with a lot of work, and I was already a bit tired after the other work we did. But I was grateful that the switches were different from how they normally are and I had the long floor block before my cardio block. So I had a bit more energy even though I was tired. For all the exercises we had with weights, I didn’t go too heavy with them, but I did try to switch them up when I felt like they might be too easy.
And for cardio, we had 4 rounds of a 2-minute run/bike for distance. Each time we finished the distance challenge, we got a bit more recovery. After the first one, we only had 60 seconds and before the last one, we had 2 minutes. I kept my resistance level on the bike the same the entire time and just focused on speed work. 2 minutes is a good amount of time for a challenge because it’s a bit harder than most of the all outs we have to do, but it’s not too long that I can’t recover after. Plus, since all we had were the distance challenges, I didn’t have to worry about going back to my base speed after it. It did feel a bit weird to end on the bike since I rarely do that, but I felt like I had done the entire workout even if in my head I felt like I still had to do some more floor work.
I also worked out on Tuesday for my traditional New Year’s Eve workout. This class had a countdown theme and it was a 2 group class so there wasn’t a lot of switching around.
For cardio, we had a very long hill workout. We had 10 rounds of 1 minute at an incline (going down 1% each round) and between each round, we had 75-seconds to recover. Because I can’t do too high with the resistance levels on the bike, I decided to double up each level. So I did level 16 for the first 2 rounds, level 15 for the next 2, and so on. For reference, level 10 is my regular level and what I set it at for the recovery time. It was a lot of hill work, but fortunately, the minute went by quickly and we had a good amount of recovery time before having to get back to hill work.
On the floor, we started with a 700-meter row. Then we had countdown work with push-ups and pop jacks. We started with 10 push-ups and 9 pop jacks. Then 8 push-ups and 7 pop jacks. We worked all the way down to 1 and then it was back on the rower for a 500-meter row. Then countdown reps with lunges for the even number rep counts and lateral flys with weights for the odd number rep counts. Then back to the rower for a 300-meter row and squats for the even number rep counts and low rows on the straps for the odd number rep counts. And finally, on the rower for a 100-meter row and leg lifts for the even number rep counts and toe reaches for the odd number rep counts. It was a lot of work and a lot of reps for each exercise, but I think it didn’t feel as bad as it could have because we were constantly changing what exercise we were doing.
My goal for 2019 was to be able to do at least 200 workouts, and after my New Year’s Eve class, the total for the year was 207. That was pretty amazing to see.
Even though it meant I worked out 3 days in a row, I was also in class for Wednesday to kick off the new year. I didn’t go as early as I usually do, so it was a 2 group class instead of a 3 group class. But it was a good workout to start off my 2020 workouts.
For cardio, we had rounds of push to all outs. We started with a 1-minute push pace with a 1-minute all out. After a recovery, we had a 2-minute push pace to a 1-minute all out. Then it was a 3-minute push pace to a 1-minute all out. And we ended with a 4-minute progressive push to a 1-minute all out. I kept the bike resistance level the same the entire time and I really had to focus on my wattage and speed during the progressive push to make sure I was increasing them every minute. It’s not as easy to do that as it is to increase the resistance, but I really like keeping the resistance steady unless we are doing hill work.
On the floor, we had exercises plus a little bit of rowing. The first block had lunges to upright rows, regular lunges, and side planks with leg lifts. After doing one round of all the exercises, we had a 400-meter row. Then we just worked on the exercises for the rest of the block. The second block had step-ups (which I modified to be squats) and planks with leg lifts. Just like with the first block, we did one round of the exercises and then a 400-meter row. And after the row, it was only the exercises until the class was done. I did have some hip issues during the floor work, but that could have been because it was my 3rd workout in a row.
I was back to my normal class schedule by Friday. And it was an extra special class because my friend Jesse was in town (she lives back east now) and she took class with our group of friends. We were missing one person from the group, but it was still so much fun to have her back for one class.
This class was made up of 4-minute blocks and the cardio and rower switched every 4 minutes. Since I started on the bike, my workout went bike, rower, bike, rower, bike, rower (my bike time had 2 blocks on the bike and 1 on the rower and the rower time had 2 rower blocks and 1 bike one). Every time we were doing cardio or rowing, we had the same thing. For cardio, it was doing .25 miles (1 mile for the bike) and then we had a 30-second recovery before doing 30-second intervals of all outs and recovery. And on the row, it was a 500-meter row and then after that it was lunges until the 4 minutes were done. I did the lunges for most of the rowing blocks, but I switched to squats toward the end.
And on the floor, we also had 4-minute blocks. Each block had 2 exercises and most of them were Bosu exercises. The first block had pullovers with weights and side to side push-ups, both using the Bosu. The second block had kneeling lateral raises with weights and plank spiderman. They were both supposed to be on the Bosu but I didn’t use it for the plank work and put my hands on the floor instead. And the last block had hip hinge low rows with weights and plank jacks. The plank jacks were supposed to be on the Bosu, but I skipped that because I knew I couldn’t guarantee my feet would be stable enough on it (which is the point, but it’s a risk with my hips).
And since it was a special class with Jesse there, we had to take a group photo when we were done!
Saturday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was also supposed to be a workout where we added to our base pace. While I do want to work on increasing my base resistance on the bike this year, I also knew that this wasn’t going to be the workout for me to do it. Doing 5 workouts in a week is tough for me and I was feeling sore. So I had to take this workout as a bit of a recovery day.
For cardio, it was a mix of push and base paces to start. Then it was a mix of base paces with incline and base paces at no incline. This was to test if the new base pace was the right one. For me, I just kept the bike resistance level at my normal level for most of the work and increased it for the incline work. I didn’t go as fast as I normally do, but that’s to be expected with a recovery day. Most of the intervals were 1-minute, but in the end we started to have 30-second push paces instead which made it easier for me.
On the rower, we started with a 400-meter row. Then we had medicine ball squats after the row before doing another 400-meter row. After that row, it was a different medicine ball squat exercise. Then we repeated that pattern with a 300-meter row twice and 200-meter rows twice. I didn’t get past the 200-meter rows because my squats took a bit longer than normal, but at least my rowing was still good.
And on the floor, we had 3 blocks of work. The first block had suitcase squats with holding a weight in one hand, sumo squats, and step-ups (which I did as lunges). The second block had goblet squats and bench tap squats. And the last block had seated shoulder presses to stands (which I had to split into 2 exercises) and single-leg v-ups. It was a lot of lower body work and a lot of work that involved my hips, so I was feeling a bit sore after class was done. But it was my normal soreness and nothing too extreme which was good.
I’m so happy that I was able to end 2019 with awesome workouts and beating my goal number of workouts for the year. And I started 2020 off with 3 workouts even though it was only half the week, so that’s a good start for my goal for this year. It’s crazy to me that it’s only been a few years that I’ve been ending and starting years with workouts because it feels so perfect and routine to me now. And now I’ve got an entire year that will be filled with workouts before I get to end and start a year this way again.
You Might Also Like
Almost End Of The Year Workouts (or Hitting A Milestone And Debating A New Plan)
Kicking Off The 12 Days of Fitness (or It’s Like Hell Week Again)
Last Regular Workout Week Of 2019 (or Still Pushing Through)
Finishing Up 12 Days of Fitness (or This Felt Like A Long Hell Week)
Holiday Workouts (or Making Myself Enjoy The Bike)
My 2nd MVP (or Kicking Butt In My Workouts)
